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Who’s really to blame for Hollywood’s nude and sex scenes?
Christian Post ^ | 03/03/2021 | Cap Stewart

Posted on 03/03/2021 8:21:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind

During her appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, actress Salma Hayek opened up about a traumatic experience on the set of her breakout film, Desperado. After Hayek went through six auditions and a screen test, securing her role as the female lead, the studio added something that wasn’t included in the original script—a sex scene:

I had a really, really hard time with that. . . . I started to sob: “I don’t know that I can do it, I don’t know that I can do it. . . .” I was not letting go of the towel, and they would try to make me laugh and things, and take it off for two seconds, and then [making crying noise] I started crying again. But we got through it.

Hayek is not the first movie star to face sexual coercion. In the entertainment industry, the pressure placed on actors — and women in particular — to undress or sexually act out for the camera is tragically commonplace. In the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s downfall, actor abuse has come into sharper focus, but the problem is far from solved.

The blame game

When evaluating a situation like Salma Hayek’s, it’s easy to simplify matters so as to lay the blame at the actress’ feet: “Well, she shouldn’t have done that.” The reality, however, is more complex, and Scripture can help us better discern this complexity. Consider the following stories:

Each of these situations shows men abusing their positions of authority and using women as pawns. And in each situation, God, through Holy Scripture, refuses to simply point the finger of blame first — or solely — at the women involved.

Coming back to Salma Hayek’s situation in Desperado: ignoring the blatantly coercive actions of those in control gives the appearance, if not the reality, of victim blaming. We can fault actresses all day long for caving in to pressure. They are, after all, moral agents just like the rest of us, culpable for their actions. Nevertheless, we fail to mirror our Savior’s heart for undeserving sinners when we refuse to even acknowledge the amount of coercion some actresses receive.

The ugly, the bad, and the good

We could lay the blame at the feet of the film’s producers. The studio executives who threaten and bully and intimidate share a hefty portion of the guilt. It is their position of authority and influence, leveraged against those under them, that has created what TIME Magazine has called “a tradition of objectifying female characters.”

And yet, merely blaming studio executives is still simplistic. Megalomaniacs like Harvey Weinstein are easy targets, but the obvious bad guys aren’t the only ones playing the role of bad guy. Sometimes even the good guys wear black hats (so to speak).

In the case of Desperado, Hayek shares how director Robert Rodriguez and his then-wife, Elizabeth Avellán, “were amazing” and “so magnificent” in how they didn’t rush her during the bed scene. But as two of the four producers on the film, Rodriguez and Avellán could have used their positions with even greater efficacy, fighting against the inclusion of the sex scene in the first place (which they apparently did not).

Even Antonio Banderas, whom Hayek says “was an absolute gentleman and super nice,” contributed to the problem. He treated the gratuitous sex scene as no big deal, which only exacerbated Hayek’s anxiety: “[F]or him, it was like nothing, and that scared me…and I was so embarrassed that I was crying.”

Furthermore, says Hayek, Banderas “was like, ‘Oh, my God, you are making me feel terrible.’” So here is a woman distraught over the situation she’s been forced into, and her scene partner layers on the guilt (inadvertently, to be sure) by proclaiming how uncomfortable her discomfort is making him.

Suppliers and demanders

At this point, it might be tempting to proclaim a blanket condemnation on all “depraved entertainers” and leave it at that. But there’s one more guilty party whose involvement warrants examination. This participant, while less obvious, is no less culpable. It is the collective entity of the viewing audience. In other words, it’s moviegoers like you and me.

Films and shows with problematic content exist because of supply and demand. The entertainment industry is a money-making machine, and it gives us what we ask for. We demand and it supplies.

“Demand” may sound like an unfair description, especially for those of us who decry hypersexualized entertainment. But here’s the reality: when we financially support a piece of pop culture that objectifies its actors, we are perpetuating the very thing we say we deplore. We may fast forward through the sex scene, or close our eyes during the nudity, or use a filtering service to avoid the objectionable content, but we are failing to recognize our role as consumers. From an economic standpoint, there is no functional difference between begrudging patronage and willing patronage. Both actions communicate to Hollywood what we consider acceptable fare.

In the hard-hitting words of Christian film critic Steven D. Greydanus,

You can justify your lack of empathy, or even sympathy, for women working anywhere in the world by shrugging and saying “They shouldn’t be rolling around [in the mud] with pigs.” . . . Incidentally. If you watch movies or TV? You are creating the demand for “mud.” Yes, women have a choice, but so do you, and if you’re paying for it, and you are in one way or another, then you don’t get to shrug your shoulders about what goes on in that world as if it had nothing to do with you.

“More like this, please”

According to the parable of the Good Samaritan, actresses like Salma Hayek are our neighbors. Even if we don’t personally know them. Even if we simply pass by them on the other side of the movie screen. Even if we only pay them indirectly to entertain us.

But they are our neighbors. And we are called, not to condemn them like self-righteous Pharisees, but to love them in word, thought, and deed. And those deeds involve the tickets we buy, the media we purchase, and the shows we stream.

There’s a saying worth remembering: “Hit movies will only ever tell studios one thing: ‘More like this, please.’”

“More like this, please.” Is that what we want the creators of sexualized entertainment to hear from us?

Cap Stewart is the author of the curriculum Personal Purity Isn’t Enough: The Long-Forgotten Secret to Making Scriptural Entertainment Choices. As a cultural commentator, he has contributed to Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues (Zondervan Acad



TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: exploitation; hollywood; metoo; nudescenes; pornification; sexscene; sexsells
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To: FalloutShelterGirl
Don't worry Selma, dear. Your life clock is about to expire for people wanting to see you nekkid.

Wow, what a cold and evil thing to say.

41 posted on 03/03/2021 12:34:27 PM PST by dragonblustar (Matthew 24:10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. )
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
Adult TV shows, still safe for kids, dumbed down to kiddie shows.

And ultimately 'The Rural Purge' in 71.

42 posted on 03/03/2021 12:37:08 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

Harvey Weinstein did...


43 posted on 03/03/2021 12:45:59 PM PST by Mr. Blond
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Interesting that you remember those scenes.


44 posted on 03/03/2021 12:54:23 PM PST by NetAddicted (Just looking)
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To: SeekAndFind

Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz used to hang out a lot together to the point where a reporter asked them if they were in a relationship. Both smiled and giggled, but neither would say.


45 posted on 03/03/2021 2:39:43 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("All men and women were created by the, you know, you know, the thing." -- Joe Biden 3/3/20)
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To: dfwgator

I remember the Rural Purge although I didn’t understand it. All I knew is that the shows I liked to watch after coming back from school were all gone.

But the local station started running them in reruns, so all was good.


46 posted on 03/03/2021 2:47:24 PM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: wbarmy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge


47 posted on 03/03/2021 2:51:09 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Mariner

I hadn’t thought about it in that manner, but it really is true. Some of the most watched, quoted and loved movies by audiences had very little “sex” in them at all, although they might have had sexual tensions between the male and female leads.

The biggest blockbusters in the 21st Century were Lord of the Rings trilogy, Avengers series, Star Wars series, Dark Knight and the G animated stuff. No sex at all.

The only one I have no information on is Avatar. Did it have a sex scene?


48 posted on 03/03/2021 2:55:48 PM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: dfwgator

“CBS canceled everything with a tree — including Lassie.”
— Pat Buttram, Mr. Haney from Green Acres


49 posted on 03/03/2021 3:24:47 PM PST by The MAGA-Deplorian (Sarcasm. It's my only natural defense against stupidity)
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To: littleharbour

Even without sex scenes she dresses like a street prostitute in movies.


50 posted on 03/03/2021 3:27:45 PM PST by Fledermaus (The Republican Party is DEAD! It took 160 years but The Whigs Struck Back!)
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To: littleharbour

Even without sex scenes she dresses like a street prostitute in movies.


51 posted on 03/03/2021 3:27:46 PM PST by Fledermaus (The Republican Party is DEAD! It took 160 years but The Whigs Struck Back!)
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To: SeekAndFind

She coulda said NO!!!


52 posted on 03/03/2021 3:31:18 PM PST by dearolddad
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To: dfwgator
"We haven't seen Jennifer Lawrence's boobs at all"


I've seen more than her boobs.. all of her, as a matter of fact. Even going as far as serious action, and she loved the camera :/
53 posted on 03/03/2021 3:52:58 PM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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To: dfwgator

Oh, forgot to mention, there are vids of her out there...


54 posted on 03/03/2021 3:53:49 PM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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To: Bikkuri
I've seen more than her boobs..

Red Sparrow. That's a movie, not a euphemism for a body part.

55 posted on 03/03/2021 3:56:23 PM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: FalloutShelterGirl

Antonio was up for a Best actor Oscar last year

He’s still hanging in there.


56 posted on 03/03/2021 4:01:10 PM PST by CaptainK ("If life's really hard, at least its short")
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To: fidelis

Ok......you are off the Bachelor party list.

#UnwantedColdShower


57 posted on 03/03/2021 4:12:02 PM PST by David Chase
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To: Sirius Lee

Actually, some real life selfies and boyfriend vids of them getting ‘busy’.


58 posted on 03/03/2021 5:04:53 PM PST by Bikkuri (If you're conservative, you're an "extremist." If you're liberal, you're an "activist.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Please post examples.... : )


59 posted on 03/03/2021 8:16:14 PM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: minnesota_bound

Scan this thread, you will see a few pictures.


60 posted on 03/03/2021 8:18:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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